Tiwanica “Nansho Daidai” Lemon Tree (10F)

[lavender87]

  Any one has any reliable info about this cultivar? JustFruits&Exotics listed this vaierty as zone 8a hardy, down to 10F.

  Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[will2358]

Here is a page about this sour orange. It is the last one on this page. It says down to 5F.
http://citruspages.free.fr/souroranges.html

[SoCal2warm]

I'm just going to repeat myself, so I think I'll just copy & paste from another thread.

On April 5 (2019 ) I talked to Nat Bradford. He used to live in Seneca, South Carolina, which he insisted is zone 7a. (I'm looking at a USDA hardiness map and Seneca appears to be listed as being on the border of zone 8a/7b though, but I pressed him on this point at he was adamant that the location was definitely not in zone 8 )
He said he grew a Taiwanica lemon and an C. ichangensis outside there unprotected, and they have survived for 7 years. At one point he says the temperature got down to 4 °F. He says his Taiwanica lemon survived all this time. I specifically asked if it had survived the freeze in 2017-2018, and he said yes, he had gone back to the property and saw the tree was still there, even though he doesn't live there anymore. The Taiwanica was grown from a seedling and is not grafted. He initially grew them in one gallon pots and left them outside, they survived. Then he eventually planted them out into the ground.
The C. ichangensis has lost leaves and the leaves have turned yellow-brown every Winter, but he says the Taiwanica did not lose leaves.

I was very surprised to hear this.

His Taiwanica has fruited, but he says his C. ichangensis never set flowers.

I also asked how his hardy citrus hybridization attempts have been going, and he said he's been busy and has a few seedlings from his Taiwanica, but nothing else besides that.

This is the same Nat Bradford whose name is connected to the Bradford watermelon, once a famous heirloom variety in the South, and he did an internship at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

[will2358]

Is there a Taiwanica lemon and a Taiwanica sour orange.

[SoCal2warm]

Is there a Taiwanica lemon and a Taiwanica sour orange.

It's the same thing.

Taiwanica is often described as a "lemon" because the skin can oftentimes be yellow, or on the yellowish side, and the fruits are sour. (However it's not a true lemon)
It's probably more similar to sour orange in genotype though, and the fruits definitely can become orange colored hanging on the tree long enough under the right conditions, and they do hang on the tree for a long time.

[Citradia]

These are photos I took of Nansho dai dai, tiawanica at the Armstrong Arboretum in Savanna, GA.

[SoCal2warm]

That Taiwanica tree in the above pictures has been doing very well at the Georgia Southern University Armstrong campus in Savannah. It's at the corner of Arts Drive and Library Drive outside the Science Center. At least according to the USDA climate map, Savannah is in zone 8b.


In Japan it was traditionally used as an ornamental, sometimes for making vinegar.

The taste is not supposed to be that good, worse than Yuzu, but at least it does not have any awful poncirus flavor.

[brian]

Lorewren gave me one a few years ago, a seedling maybe 2ft tall.  It Nansho die-died on pretty much the first big freeze and I’ve been waiting to use that pun ever since.  Thanks for the opportunity

I think it may have done better in ground.

[Citradia]

My nansho dai dai died back almost to the ground every winter even with protection in a high tunnel and finally died completely when I took the tunnel down. The only hybrids that came back from roots without protection two winters ago was citradia and Thomasville.